Tag: conspiracy theory

The soaring popularity of a discounted, right-wing conspiracy theory that claims last week’s Florida school shooting was an FBI plot was underscored Wednesday when YouTube’s top trending video featured a segment on the baseless allegations.

The video, originally posted in August, claimed that David Hogg, a survivor of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., was an “actor,” not a classmate.

In the video, the 17-year-old was featured in an interview with the CBS affiliate in Los Angeles to discuss a dispute between a lifeguard and a swimmer.

The video, which received more than 200,000 views in about 12 hours, was copied and re-uploaded by a YouTube user named “mike m,” who wrote new caption: “DAVID HOGG THE ACTOR …”

Since the massacre that killed 17 people, the conspiracy theory has gained traction among Trump supporters and others on the far right who believe – or want you to believe – that the shooting was an FBI plot to seize power from Americans.

The video was removed by YouTube for violating its policy on bullying and harassment.

On CNN on Tuesday, Hogg disputed the outrageous claims.

“I’m not a crisis actor,” Hogg told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on “AC360” Tuesday. “I’m someone who had to witness this and live through this and I continue to be having to do that.”

A right-wing conspiracy theory that suggests the Florida school shooting last week was an FBI plot to seize more power is gaining in popularity.

The far-fetched suggestions include the assertion that two students who have criticized Republicans for failing to act on gun control were staged by the FBI.

The conspiracy theory gained even more traction after Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., liked two Twitter posts sharing far-right media stories, including one from True Pundit under the headline “BUSTED: Trump-Hating School Shooting Survivor Visited CNN HQ Before the Shooting; Ranted Live on CNN After.”

The crackpot publications have suggested that one of the students, David Hogg, is the son of an FBI agent and wanted to protect his father’s involvement in the plot.

“The kid who has been running his mouth about how Donald Trump and the GOP are teaming to help murder high school kids by upholding the Second Amendment is the son of an FBI agent,” an unnamed author for True Pundit wrote. “David Hogg is a school shooting survivor in Florida. At least that is what the mainstream media has told us. We wouldn’t be surprised by anything involving the FBI at this point.”

As evidence, True Pundit posted a photo claiming to be Hogg at a CNN news desk, wearing a CNN T-shirt one week prior to the shooting.

“But now we learn Hogg was hanging out at CNN headquarters in Atlanta, GA sometime Before the school shooting,” the story reads. “Before the shooting. Posing behind an news anchor desk? Perhaps Hogg’s career dream is to sign on with the network — a young Jake Tapper — as he has portrayed himself since the deadly shooting that claimed 17 students as a ‘student journalist and entrepreneur.'”

Even some government officials are adopting the conspiracy theories.

Benjamin Kelly, an aide to Republican Florida state Rep. Shawn Harrison, told the Tampa Bay Times on Tuesday that the two teenagers “are not students here but actors that travel to various crisis when they happen.”